April 17, 2018 UPDATE: A metro Atlanta woman is set to be sentenced in May in connection with an elaborate scheme to defraud casinos and credit card companies out of $1.1 million.
Vivian Wang, 54, pleaded guilty in a Sacramento federal court to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with the case on Jan. 31. Her sentencing hearing is set for May 16, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Wang was previously listed as a Lilburn resident but in the Justice Department’s announcement of her guilty plea, she was listed as an Alpharetta resident.
Wang’s alleged co-conspirator, Las Vegas resident Frank Luo, pleaded guilty in August 2017 and was sentenced to three years in prison.
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August 24, 2017: A Lilburn woman is facing a March 2018 trial in connection with a scheme that defrauded casinos and credit card companies out of $1.1 million, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a release.
Vivian Wang, 54, was named as a co-defendant in the case. Frank Luo, 49, of Las Vegas, was convicted of wire fraud and sentenced to three years in prison Aug. 23.
Luo and his “co-schemers,” including Wang, used the identities and Social Security numbers of migrant workers to apply for casino credit and credit cards, and recruited “clients” to do the same, the DOJ said.
Some involved in the scheme intentionally lost money while gambling in order to encourage the casinos to loan them more, while others “would gain the same,” the DOJ said.
The scheme was conducted at Native American-operated casinos outside Sacramento, California, according to media reports from the time of Wang's and Luo's arrests.
Luo and the co-conspirators wracked up large amounts of credit card and casino credit debt in a short amount of time, but did not pay any of it back at the end of the scheme, the DOJ said. The combined total debts amounted to $1.1 million.
The case was jointly investigated by the FBI and the California Department of Justice’s Bureau of Gambling Control.
Wang faces wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges. Her trial is scheduled for March 2018.
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